This invention is generally concerned with printing postage indicia on irregularly-shaped letter mailpieces and more particularly with a mailing machine including a postage indicia printing drum and an improved impression roller for urging stepped letter mailpieces into printing engagement with the drum.
A significant proportion of the approximately one-half billion irregularly-shaped mailpieces, flats and parcels annually prepared for processing by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) consist of stepped letter mailpieces which have been manually processed for printing postage indicia thereon. This is primarily due to commercially available mailing machines, which are utilized by large mailers for automatically processing the bulk of the letter mailpieces prepared for processing by the USPS, cannot be relied upon to print clear and complete, undistorted, postage indicia on stepped letter mailpieces. In particular, this is due to such stepped letter mailpieces including an elongate ridge, formed in the upper surface of the envelope by its contents, which interferes with proper printing engagement of the postage indicia printing drum and the upper surface of the envelope. Accordingly:
An object of the invention is to provide a mailing machine including improved means for printing postage indicia on stepped letter mailpieces; and
Another object is to provide, in a mailing machine including a rotary postage indicia printing drum, an improved impression roller for urging stepped letter mailpieces into printing engagement with the drum.